A page to help familiarize you all with the "known" cultures, creatures, and travelers of the Veins. None of these should be considered complete information, but it will give you what most of the tribes know of each particular thing. Of course, it is assumed these are biased entries.
To be updated over time as you encounter more.
Dvargir: All dwarves are to some extent, mindless. Focused on few things besides their endless toil. Though some of their thoughts are somewhat human, the range of expression is horrifically small. The Dvargir are even more so. They face only the future; one in which only they and their Work exists. A Dvargir will only make a deal with you if they are statistically-No, mathematically certain that it will forward the Work. It may not be in your lifetime, nor theirs, but it will happen. They are exclusively literal in meaning. There can be no bargain; only cause and effect. They are not cruel, only apathetic to others. None take more slaves than the Dvargir; it is Natural. The Ælf Adal hate them as well; the Dvargir find the Ælf Adal an inconvenience.
Knotsmen: Cursed. Cursed. Cursed. Do not associate with a Knotsman. Never accept any trade with a Knotsman. It would be better if they were all swallowed by Mother Mountain. They will always Lie. It is a waste of life to speak to them; no words of humanity shall ever reach their twisted hearts. They were Greedy, long ago. Made a tainted Sacrifice. Sacrificed their children, their children's children. They deny its cost though they know of it. They cannot bear to face their ignorance.
The Olm: Not human, and yet perhaps more human than anything else Below. They are blind. Skin slippery and soft like a frog. They make little noise and rarely are seen in any daylight. Swim down through caves long enough and they shall find you. The Tribes have often traded with them; well made wood is a precious tool for them. If you are beloved by them, then they shall eat your body upon your death; they understand Hunger and Sacrifice.
Milk-Skin-Traders: They live on the Nightmare Sea, in their pleasure barges. Entirely human. Somehow, the only people of the Nightmare Sea the tribes have ever seen are these repugnant, fat, traders. They do not truly understand Sacrifice. They merely understand how to calculate its "worth". You will know them by their pain scales. They use slaves, but it is no special thing; most prefer the use of white pack apes.
Calcinated Cancer Bear: Beautiful creatures of an age before the world Burned. They crept beneath the soil to escape and were permanently changed. They seek out flame to sooth their aching growths. All live in pain; all are still dangerous. The Frostbitten Bastard tribe is known to test their heroes by sending them into indefinite exile until they return with the pelt of such a creature. There is some nobility in ending its continuous suffering.
The Rapture: From the moment you stepped into the Underworld, it began to hunt you. It will find you at your most desperate. Alone. Starved. Lost. You have seen it before, even if you did not know. Lurking in the flickering shadows of a dying fire. In the cold abyss of the cave where you were forced to leave behind your family. In the nervous sweat of your brow when the cave wall slips out from beneath your groping foot. It cannot bleed. It has no flesh to slay. It invades the mind and takes your flesh as its own. You will be forced to kill and die by your own hand.
All who go Below must face it eventually. You make invoke its Name and call it to you, if you are certain you can ward it off. But you must face it.
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